1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator having an improved fan which blows air towards a heat exchanger, such as an evaporator, in order to permit chilled air to circulate in the refrigerator.
2. Prior Arts
Generally, a refrigerator has an evaporator for generating chilled air and a fan which blows air towards the evaporator and circulates the chilled air into a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber through ducts.
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a conventional refrigerator 100 having a fan 141 therein.
As shown in FIG. 1, refrigerator 100 has a body 110 having a refrigerating chamber 111 and a freezing chamber 112 therein, and a door 120 rotatably attached to the front of body 110. An air passage 117 which is communicated with both refrigerating chamber 111 and freezing chamber 112 is formed in both a partition wall 115 which separates refrigerating chamber 111 from freezing chamber 112 and a rear wall 116. An evaporator 131 which receives a low-pressure and low-temperature refrigerant from a condenser (not shown), which is disposed in a machine room 150 so as to make chilled air, is installed in air passage 117. In addition, fan 141 for blowing air towards evaporator 131 and a motor 142 for driving fan 141 are also installed in air passage 117. Fan 141 circulates chilled air into refrigerating chamber 111 and freezing chamber 112 through ducts. Reference numeral 135 indicates a compressor for compressing the refrigerant so that the refrigerant has a high-temperature and a high-pressure.
The fan having the above structure is fixed to a wall of the body which forms the air passage. Particularly, the motor is fixed to a rear wall of the refrigerator and the fan is connected to a motor shaft so as to be rotated. At this time, the fan does not linearly move in the axis direction of the motor.
However, the conventional refrigerator has disadvantages that a heat boundary layer is formed on the evaporator while air blown by the fan is heat-exchanged with the evaporator if the blowing force of the fan is constant. As a result, the heat-exchange efficiency is reduced due to the heat boundary layer.
On the other hand, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 5,193,359 issued to Jerry C. Martin discloses a fan which blows air into an evaporator chamber in a refrigerator. However, Martin's fan also forms the heat boundary layer on an evaporator, so the heat-exchange efficiency is reduced.
In addition, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 5,214,938 issued to Adam C. Kennedy also discloses a fan which blows air into an evaporator chamber in a refrigerator. However, Kennedy's fan also forms the heat boundary layer on an evaporator, thereby causing the problem mentioned above.